One of the things Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey did in 1940
was to promote 19-year-old Stan Musial to his Daytona Beach farm team
in the Florida State League. A step up from where Musial had been
playing and still a pitcher, Rickey felt that Dickie Kerr was the ideal
minor league manager to put the finishing touches on Stan.With
Kerr picking his spots, Musial won 18 games. But even more impressive to
Dickie was the way Stan hit when he played him in the outfield. It was
the same year that Musial, diving for a fly ball, injured his throwing
arm so badly that he would never pitch again.Kerr not only
softened things for Musial by telling him to forget about it – that he
would someday be a big league outfielder – he also invited Stan and his
wife to move in with him and his family. Musial, of course, never forgot
Kerr’s kindness and years later, on Dickie’s 65th
birthday, Stan and his wife presented him with the deed to a new house in Houston, Texas.

Here are two more things the reader ought to know: Musial won seven National League batting championships, and on his 60th
birthday checked in at only three more pounds than he weighed at the height of his career!